


Leading

by Gimmeran21



Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Angst, Disability, Gen, One-Sided Attraction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-11
Updated: 2019-07-11
Packaged: 2020-06-26 10:14:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19766095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gimmeran21/pseuds/Gimmeran21
Summary: Matt and the other blind students are having trouble with Disability Services at College. He is asked to try to sort it out.





	Leading

Matt sighed for the fifth time as he tapped at his keyboard.

Foggy thought that Matt had been off for a while. He wasn’t the most open of people so Foggy had tried the indirect approach at first but that hadn’t worked. Matt had just smiled his gorgeous smile and changed the subject.

But this couldn’t go on. It was coming up to the exams and they both needed to be on top of their game. Matt was still acing his courses but he was looking increasingly stressed out and seemed to be existing on about two hours of sleep a night and twenty cups of coffee a day. Foggy knew from bitter experience that that never ended well. The first semester – three migraines, one ending in a hospital admission, second semester – nightmares ending in a sleepwalking episode when Matt had nearly been run over.

So he decided on the direct approach at the risk of having his head bitten off.

“Come on Matt, you’ve just sighed really heavily for about the fifth time and you’ve been looking like hell for the past couple of weeks.”

"Oh thank you. You mean I’m losing my astonishing good looks?” Matt couldn’t quite disguise the slight break in his voice.

“No buddy you could never lose those but seriously what gives? This is your best friend you’re talking to and I’m worried about you.”

“Then don’t be worried, I’m fine.”

Somehow that denial made Foggy worry even more. Matt had never seemed to grasp that he deserved for someone to be concerned about him. He was always insistent on being independent and self-sufficient at the risk of pushing away any sources of help.

“Matt, I really don’t want to have to take you to hospital again because you’ve literally worried yourself sick.”

Matt started and then looked down at the floor (his equivalent of avoiding someone’s eyes).

“That’s emotional blackmail Foggy”.

"Yup. I don’t care. Now give or I won’t do audio description for you any more”.

"More blackmail.”

"Yes. I won’t come with you to Josie’s either. I’ll keep on blackmailing you if you won’t come clean.”

"We-ell…” 

It came out really slowly.

“I’m missing three textbooks that should have been translated into Braille and the software for the screen reader hasn’t been updated so it keeps breaking down and it’s getting to be difficult to keep up with my studies”.

"You’ve used Disability Services all the way through the course so what’s new? We should put in a formal complaint. They have a legal duty toward you and all the other students who use their services.”

Foggy was always careful not to call Matt disabled and always winced internally at the name of said department. Matt most definitely was not disabled, he just needed help sometimes.

Aware that Foggy could act like an attack dog on his behalf Matt had carefully not gone into detail about all the times he had had to struggle to get the help he needed and which he hated to have to ask for. On the other hand he and all the other students affected had a right to the help which would go someway towards putting them on a level footing with the sighted students.

“Yes well, for the past few weeks they’ve got really bad and I’m not sure why so I got together with some of the other blind students and they’ve asked me to go to DS to try to sort it out.”

“Not to take anything away from you but we both know you can charm the birds off the trees - not to mention you being on your way to becoming one kickass lawyer”.

Matt shifted uncomfortably in his chair. They both knew Matt wasn’t above using his considerable charm to get his own way especially with the opposite sex. Not that that was likely to work with that misery John Sebastian Smith, the manager of DS. It was beyond Matt that someone so temperamentally unsuited to dealing with students with special needs and someone so lacking in common humanity had ever been appointed to the job.

So Matt made his way to the DS office which (although why should he be surprised?) was on the third floor of the main admin block. As usual he had memorised the way and the number of doors he needed to go past but was also checking the embossed numbers and Braille labels as he went, glad to tell that in this at least the university was complying with the ADA.

He got to the right door and went through it. He flashed his most charming smile and said to the air,

“Good morning, my name is Matt Murdock. I have an appointment with Mr Smith”.

“Sure, go through”. 

No attempt to tell him where to go or to offer to guide him so to make the point he said, 

“Where is the door?”

“Oh, sorry. Straight in front of you, about four paces. It’s open”.

“Thank you.”

Just as he was going through, a voice said,

“Hello Mr Murdock, welcome. There’s a chair immediately to your left.”

Matt paused. The voice was like honey poured over molasses. He really liked the sound of that voice. A light footstep came towards him and he was enveloped in a musky fragrance which for once he did not recognise. Foggy had often joked with him about his ability to recognise girls by the perfumes they wore which on occasion had led to some embarrassing incidents.

Giving himself a mental shake he sat down.

“Oh sorry, I thought I was meeting the head of department.”

“You are. My name is Carmela Ortiz. I have just taken over”.

Trust them not to have updated the website.

“Call me Carmela please.”

Willingly, thought Matt.

“And call me Matt”.

“Well, Matt”.

He could hear the smile in her voice and heard her hair as it swished against her shoulders.

“I’ve read your email and just want to check I have this right. The resources that you use to carry out your studies are either not available or are no longer fit for purpose”. 

Got it in one. “Yes, that’s it in a nutshell. What is going to be done about it? It’s causing us a great deal of stress and I’m sure you’d rather deal with this informally than have us go through the formal complaints route.”

“I totally agree. I have arranged for the Braille translations to be produced as quickly as possible, ordered an upgrade to the software and asked your lecturers to give extensions to your assignment deadlines. I hope that will resolve this unfortunate problem and I can only apologise that it happened in the first place”.

Matt sat back in his chair. He’d been expecting to meet the usual unhelpful stonewalling attitude that he normally experienced from John Smith but had instead been talking to a pussycat with a purr in her voice. She sounded young. His age or at most slightly older? Was she available to date? No, don’t go there Matt. Dating between staff and students was strictly forbidden for obvious reasons.

"I’m just passing you a Braille copy of my email confirming my actions and promising that this situation will not be allowed to happen again.”

Matt felt a featherlight touch of small delicate fingers. So, his internal picture of her was complete. With her name she was likely Latina, with long black hair, brown eyes and olive skin and she was petite. He told himself to stop making assumptions. He’d been on the receiving end of that too often because of his blindness. But it was fun to speculate. Perhaps he could ask Foggy casually of course what she looked like. He was still so tempted to try to date her and he told himself again not to even try to go there. He had enough on his plate.

Coming out of his brown study he realised that Carmela (what a lovely name) was talking to him.

“Matt”.

“Sorry, what did you say again?”

" I do hope that this will have helped you and your fellow students. Please let me know if any other issues arise that we need to discuss”.

“Certainly. Thank you so much for your help”. Matt almost stammered, hoping he could come up with further reasons to meet this wonderful woman.

As Matt went back through the door he heard a familiar clatter, just like the noise his cane made when it fell to the floor.


End file.
